Names
by lulu0814
Summary: Just another fic about the finale. Brennan muses about her nickname and its significance while Booth is in a coma. Short and rambly.


**Everybody's writing fics about the finale, how Booth is recovering his memory, etc. I wrote some random rambling about Brennan and her nickname. **

***

To be honest, she had grown to like her nickname. She knew it was a stupid and childish name, a name that made people raise eyebrows when they heard it.

"Bones? That's a strange name to call a girl."  
"Weirdest pet name I've ever heard."  
"Why does he keep calling you Bones? Is it an euphemism for something?"

But she liked it. At least it was better than the "Hey, bone lady!" Booth had initially used to greet her on their very first meeting. She had quickly evolved from "bone lady" to "Bones", and after four years of getting used to, she found she much preferred answering to the latter.

Booth had never called her Tempe. Only her family and her exes called her Tempe. Only those who let her down. Only those who left her. Only those who weren't permanent, who rejected her, who caused her pain. No, Booth had never called her Tempe, and she was grateful for it. He had called her Temperance a few times, but it was years ago, back when they weren't as dangerously close, when they were still slowly learning to respect each other. He had only called her Temperance when he was serious and sincere, wanted to get his point across and wanted her to listen instead of shrugging him off. But he didn't call her Temperance anymore. She didn't like it when he called her that anyway. Even back then it sounded too intimate already, and if he started calling her Temperance now, it would sound wrong in an indefinable way.

Moreover, Temperance wasn't even her real name. Was Booth supposed to start calling her Joy?

When someone said the words Temperance Brennan, sometimes the thought "That isn't my real name" still flashed through her mind. When Angela called her Bren or when Hodgins called her Doctor B., she mused about how different it would be if her last name had stayed Keenan.

Yet Booth called her Bones. And admittedly it was a stupid name, he'd called her that mostly to annoy her, but she was just Bones, and it was simple. Not Joy Keenan, not Temperance Brennan, just Bones. The bone lady. His Bones. When she was with him, she was surer bout her own identity.

She hoped Booth didn't know about that.

Maybe she simply spent too much time with Booth. The word she heard the most often every day was without a doubt the word Bones, and not just because she was a forensic anthropologist.

"C'mon Bones, chop chop, we're late."  
"Hiya, Bones."  
"You know what Bones? You're right."  
"No, Bones, you're wrong okay?"  
"Bones, what are you doing?"  
"Hey, Bones, those are my fries!"

Maybe the frequency was a factor. If she hadn't gotten used to the word Bones, she would've gone insane. And after becoming familiar with it, her affection for it had grown somehow.

Of course it wasn't a coincidence if only her partner and his son called her Bones. It was rather cute, really, though she would never confess such a thing out loud. She knew it quite possibly had some kind of special significance considering how even Jared called her Tempe, but she preferred not to delve into such thoughts. All that mattered was that Sweets could NOT call her Bones. Ever. Only Booth and Parker were allowed. She didn't care why, they just were.

She really was rather fond of the name now. In these four days waiting for Booth to wake up from his coma, she had missed it. Of course she had also missed his goofy smile, his annoying voice, his tall frame next to hers and his big warm hand on her back, but that was normal. They spent a rather large amount of time together, so missing his physical presence was not unexpected. Being worried to death and refusing to leave the hospital wasn't unexpected either.

However, she was surprised by how attached she had become to this simple word. When Parker visited his father, she unexplainably started sobbing. And after finally waking up, when Booth had asked her "Who are you?", she'd felt like she had lost her identity all over again.

***

**Out of all the stuff I could've written about the finale, I write this. I don't get it either. **


End file.
